Everytown Recommendations to Curb Gun Sales Across Meta Platforms

In its recent research report done in collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that while Meta purports to prohibit ads that sell guns and gun accessories, the company is allowing scores of ads on Facebook and Instagram that allow people to buy guns. The full report can be read here.

Alarmingly, the research found that Meta approved more than 230 ads selling guns, gun accessories, or ammunition in violation of its own policies. These ads appeared on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, and included Glocks, AR-15-style assault weapons, Glock switches, and untraceable ghost guns, among other products. The TTP found that Meta missed obvious signs that these ads were for firearms and firearms accessories, and violated the company’s own policies.

To address the issue of firearms being sold across its platforms, Everytown recommends, at the bare minimum, Meta take the following steps:

1. Enforce Existing Guidelines Pertaining to the Sale of Guns:
   After research by Everytown pointed to hundreds of advertisements for gun sales on the platform, Facebook banned private sales of guns on Facebook and Instagram in 2016. However, the efficacy of any policy lies in the company’s commitment to its enforcement. The TTP’s recent findings point to the need for better enforcement of these guidelines across Meta products to prevent gun sales from being advertised on the platform. It is one thing for a single violative post to slip through the cracks, but the idea that hundreds of Meta-approved advertisements for guns are running on the company’s platforms points to a serious issue that the company must address. 
2. Ban Users that Violate the Prohibition on Private Gun Sales on Meta Platforms:
   Strong social media guidelines require consequences for users that violate them. To this end, Everytown was outraged by 2022 reporting by the Washington Post that Facebook’s ban on gun sales gave posters a whopping 10 strikes before removing them from the platform. The advertised sale of a gun, in blatant violation of platform policies, is not some trivial mistake — Meta should take the position, and publicly state, that a single willful violation of this rule is severe enough to warrant terminating an account. 
3. Prohibit Links to Places Where Guns Are Sold:
   Recently, YouTube announced that it will remove content on its platform that directly links to websites where one can buy guns. Meta should adopt the same policy in its Community Standards, which would be consistent with the company’s Advertising Standards that “[l]istings may not promote the buying, selling, or use of weapons, ammunition, and explosives.” If Meta wants to prevent its platform from serving as an online marketplace for firearms, the company must explicitly clarify that this prohibition includes posting links to websites where one can buy guns.
4. Consider Additional Steps to Ensure Posters Are in Compliance with the New “Engaged in the Business” Rule:
   The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) finalized the “Engaged in the Business” rule in April 2024 and it went into effect in May 2024. The rule provides guidance to those selling guns—“wherever, or through whatever medium”—on their legal obligations to obtain a dealer license. Under Meta’s own Community Standards, only “legitimate brick-and-mortar entities” are permitted to post content which “[a]ttempts to buy, sell, or trade, firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, explosives, or lethal enhancements.” We urge Meta to take steps to ensure that those purportedly “legitimate brick-and-mortar stores” are in fact federally licensed dealers in compliance with federal law and the ATF rule. This would not be particularly difficult to accomplish, as Meta could simply require that gun dealers (viz. “legitimate brick-and-mortar stores”) provide proof of their federal firearms licenses before they can publish posts promoting the sale of firearms. 

By taking the above steps, Meta could make both its platforms and our communities safer.